Media centre

Monday 11 Apr 2016

May Day rail investment programme promises less disruption for passengers

Region & Route:

National

With over 96% of the railway network unaffected by Network Rail planned improvement work, this coming bank holiday will be one of the least disruptive bank holidays for railway travel for many years.

Over 11,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army will be working over the long weekend (30 April-2 May) to deliver vital elements of the company’s £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan, which will provide a bigger, better, and more reliable railway for passengers and businesses across Britain.

A total of £33m will be invested over the May Day weekend, with the work planned to minimise disruption to passengers – when passenger numbers are typically fewer than half.  Compared with the recent Easter programme, there will be significantly less disruption on major routes with the overwhelming majority of journeys unaffected.

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said: "It’s good news for passengers that most people wanting to travel by train this bank holiday will be able to. We’re continuing with our huge investment programme and we have a lot of work to do this weekend, but we've planned it as far as possible to minimise disruption."

“Over 11,000 members of the railway’s orange army will be out working this bank holiday to build a bigger, better railway as part of our £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan all aimed at providing better, more reliable journeys for passengers and businesses across Britain.”

Paul Clark, operations delivery manager and a member of Network Rail’s orange army said: “With passengers numbers continuing to grow and the demands being placed on our railway getting ever greater, it’s vital that we get big chunks of time to get onto our railway to carry our heavy maintenance work and complete big investment schemes. This will keep the network ticking over and make it safer and more reliable for the millions who rely on it every day.”

Mr Carne concluded: “Passengers have shown themselves to be incredibly understanding while we invest heavily to improve our railway and I’d like to thank them in advance for their support and understanding.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail’s £40bn spending plan for Britain’s railways for the five year period up to 31 March 2019. The plan is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to tremendous growth the railways have seen – a doubling of passengers in the past twenty years. The plan will deliver a bigger, better railway with more trains, longer trains, faster trains with more infrastructure, more reliable infrastructure and better facilities for passengers, especially at stations

• Although the vast majority of the network will be unaffected by planned improvement work, passengers are advised to check their journeys if travelling over the bank holiday at nationalrail.co.uk

The biggest parts of the May Day rail investment programme are:

• London Liverpool Street – Crossrail and overhead line work on the Great Eastern main line around Gidea Park will alteration to Abellio Greater Anglia services on Sunday and Monday
• On Sunday, Southern services out of Victoria will see substantial changes, including express services to Gatwick running from London Bridge rather than Victoria
• London Paddington will see reduced services over the weekend as Crossrail and  electrification work continues 
• East Kent resignalling sees rail replacement services for Southeastern between Faversham and Sheerness on Sunday 
• Work on the West Coast main line near Stafford and north of Lancaster will see changes and alterations to long distance Virgin, CrossCountry and London Midland services for most of the weekend
• Major resignalling work on the northern part of the Midland main line around Sheffield will mean substantial service alterations on Sunday and Monday

London airports:

• Stansted – normal service
• Heathrow – normal service on Sunday with a near normal service on Saturday and Monday
• Gatwick – fast, direct services operate but from London Bridge rather than Victoria